Depends on what the department authorizes. Ankle holsters have always been a pia for me, and I never liked them. I had a holster attached to my vest that worked well for me. To me holster choice was always personal, I did have the good fortune to work for a department that allowed our personal choice of holsters within reason.

For years I carried a S&W Model 60 Chief's Special 2" in either a pocket holster or ankle holster. Ankle holster wasn't secure enough for my liking and I know too many guys that it caused circulation issues in their leg. Later I carried a S&W 669 9mm in my pocket.

Stainless is the way to go for a BUG that will be in a pocket. I know a lot of guys that had rust problems with blued revolvers in their pocket.

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"Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen."
-- Sir Robert Peel

Like Ron, I carried the Smith as my backup gun and in my pants pocket. I never carried it in an ankle holster on duty. The reason I did not was due to knowing of two deputies who were involved in a fight with a suspect for their duty gun. They were unable to reach their ankle gun during the fight and only after fighting to their utmost, where they able to overcome the suspect and cuff them.

That was the day they both stop carrying on their ankle and as a result, I do not recommend them. Just my 2 cents.

I carry a hammerless S&W 2", 5 shot in my back pocket in a leather sleeve. Ankle holsters are hard to get to and if you have to run, you stand a fair chance of losing that gun. I use to carry two backups and I put the other one in my vest.

If you end up in a situation where you are going to need to use your backup, it will likely be because you are in a fight for your life and if that is the case, you will probably be making a contact shot. But many different scenarios are possible.

If you have someone on top of you and your backup is your only option, you want to be able to easily get to it. Same goes if you do not have someone on top of you. Try to think of every possibility when you make a decision onn where to keep your backup and what type of gun to use.

__________________"If you expect logic associated with California law, it will only make your head hurt.." - Ron-Solo, 2013

Alot of you suggest support side carry instead of strong side. What is the advantage of support side?

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"Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen."
-- Sir Robert Peel

I use to carry a Beretta 84F in a left holster in my vest under my left arm. It's 13 shots of .380 cal. or (9mm short) and one great shooting handgun.

Then I had a Beretta Mod. 70 .32 cal. in my center vest 8 shots for close up and personnel defense.

Now at my present position as a University Police, I don't carry any backup. Don't feel the need to at this present time. I hope that helps you out on making your decision, there are many good backup weapons, good luck.

Whatever you choose please make sure you practice, practice, practice drawing and shooting your back up gun. I tried all three vest, ankle, and pocket with a stopwatch and ankle is by far the slowest and most impractical for me.

Many of us carry weak side for tactics, not sure i wanna say why on an open forum but you just have to find what works for you; Heck that's half the fun

I'm not sure if statistics support it, but I think the most likely need for a BUG is because you're already in a retention fight over your strong-side primary.

That makes sense. I was mistakenly picturing cross draw with strong hand...duh.

__________________
"Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen."
-- Sir Robert Peel

Alot of you suggest support side carry instead of strong side. What is the advantage of support side?

As already stated, if I have my strong side hand clamped on the butt of the gun to keep it inside the holster while some turd is trying to get it, my support hand is going inside the pocket to get the backup gun to shoot him to prevent that from happening.

Or if I am shooting my primary and it jams, I drop my support hand immediately to grab the backup gun so I can have it asap... my primary might still be in my right hand but I am not messing around and will want immediate access.

Also, and this is what I do the most and the most frequent use of the off side pocket carry for me, and it gives me a nice and warm and fuzzy feeling, is that when I am on a contact or backing someone up, and I feel the need to do so, I will have my support hand in my pocket, with a firm grip on the gun, ready to pull out to use immediately, but to the outside world, it just looks like I have my off hand in my pocket. Useful when you want to maintain a low key appearance but ready to go at a moment's notice, faster than you can get to your main gun sometimes.

Whatever you choose please make sure you practice, practice, practice drawing and shooting your back up gun.

^^ THIS!!! Practice from all "regular" positions (standing, sitting, kneeling, prone, sitting in a chair, sitting in a car, etc) and freaked up positions in a fight (weapon retention, on your back, upside down, bad guy mounted, bad guy side control, bad guy in your guard, in a hallway, up against a wall, down on a couch, etc)

A revolver can take so much more abuse than any semi auto carried in a pocket. A revolver doensn't need oil like a semi auto does. A revolver wont stop working due to pocket lint and body sweat that has accumulated dirt throughout the gun. Small semi autos are more prone to FTF's when covered in filth from being in a pocket every day.

For a revolver, if the bullet fails to fire and your primary hand is injured, your back up hand can simply pull the trigger on the wheel gun until a bullet goes bang. With a semi auto, you may need two hands to clear a malfunction/jam.

Again, for a BUG, a revolver is best. You can't beat the J-frames airweight models.

As already stated, if I have my strong side hand clamped on the butt of the gun to keep it inside the holster while some turd is trying to get it, my support hand is going inside the pocket to get the backup gun to shoot him to prevent that from happening.

Or if I am shooting my primary and it jams, I drop my support hand immediately to grab the backup gun so I can have it asap... my primary might still be in my right hand but I am not messing around and will want immediate access.

Also, and this is what I do the most and the most frequent use of the off side pocket carry for me, and it gives me a nice and warm and fuzzy feeling, is that when I am on a contact or backing someone up, and I feel the need to do so, I will have my support hand in my pocket, with a firm grip on the gun, ready to pull out to use immediately, but to the outside world, it just looks like I have my off hand in my pocket. Useful when you want to maintain a low key appearance but ready to go at a moment's notice, faster than you can get to your main gun sometimes.

Good advice. I have been blessed to never have been in a fight for my gun (knock on wood). Your info makes great tactical sense. My favorite off-duty carry is also pocket carry, and I will keep that on my strong side. But, for the BUG, you guys have converted me to support side. I suppose I should've figured that out sooner...who knows, this forum may have just saved my life!

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"Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen."
-- Sir Robert Peel

I would go with the Bodyguard shrouded type instead of the Centennial hammerless type so you can still have the option of cocking it for single action if you really needed to. LAPD neutered theirs so the single action function was disabled on their Bodyguard revolvers though for liability. So sad... ruined a good pocket revolver.

If possible, go hammerless / shrouded hammer. I carried a J frame with a shrouded hammer, Model 49. On occasion, a tiny Beretta in a wallet style holster in a deep, rear pocket.

As I said earlier, I used a S&W Model 60 bought in 1977. Some of you will probably cringe with what I say next, but I had the hammer bobbed by a gunsmith. Yes, I realized the original value is changed, but I had no intention of selling it. It never once in 15yrs. gave me any problem catching on my pants pocket. I of course kept it in a holster.